Keeping Ice Fishing Free from Doping

Keeping Ice Fishing Free from Doping

Article excerpt

With doping a rampant problem throughout sports, drug testing has
arrived at the most unlikely places, including the Big Eau Pleine
Reservoir in Wisconsin, where ice fisherman prize patience over
power.

The ice fishermen spent a week on the frozen lake, and on the
last day, after emptying perch and bluegill from their buckets and
scrubbing bait from their hands, several winners of the World Ice
Fishing Championship were ushered into their rooms in the Plaza
Hotel.

There, an official from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency ordered them
to provide urine samples for a surprise test to detect steroids and
growth hormones -- drugs not normally associated with the quiet
solitude of ice fishing.

"We do not test for beer, because then everybody would fail,"
said Joel McDearmon, chairman of the U.S. Freshwater Fishing
Federation.

With doping a rampant problem throughout sports, drug testing has
arrived at the most unlikely places, including the chilly Big Eau
Pleine Reservoir, where competitors prize patience over power.

The leaders of the sport of ice fishing have started a long-shot
bid to take their lonely pursuit to the Olympics. A berth in the
Winter Games would come with many obvious advantages, but first
there are hurdles to clear. Once the anglers shuffled off the ice
and put down their rods, they had to submit to the same examinations
as world-class sprinters and weight lifters.

In sports like ice fishing, where speed and strength are not
necessarily at a premium, an agent from an international antidoping
federation can seem, well, like a fish out of water.

After all, ice fishing is not a particularly physical sport. Most
days are spent crouched low around the ice hole in snow pants,
kneepads and improvised shin guards made of foam. The hardest part
is staying warm -- most anglers forgo gloves in order to better feel
fish tugging on the rods.

Fishing officials wondered whether doping would even help anglers
jigging for panfish, roughfish and crappie.

"We kind of joked about that," McDearmon said. "You're obviously
not going to have anybody out there oxygen doping or something like
that."

Bill Whiteside, a previous gold medal winner from Eau Claire, a
city in western Wisconsin, said that physical strength often had
little to do with fishing success.

"It's not the best athlete that usually wins the events," he
said. "A lot of times it's the experienced older guys."

Ice fishing is not the only fringe sport that has embraced drug
testing. Competitors in darts, miniature golf, chess and tug of war
were all tested in recent years, according to the sports' organizers
and the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Some of those sports are gearing up for long-shot Olympic bids of
their own. Others are aiming to ensure that no competitor, no matter
the scale of the competition, has an unfair advantage. …